Blessed by Night

They used to torture her for the hell of it.

The number of shocks, injections, and shavings she received was not small.

They deprived her of her sleep, carved away her sense of self, and chipped away at everything she held dearly about herself until she was nothing but an empty shell.

Too timid to kill herself, and too despondent to even dream of rebellion.

She was trapped.

Until the day that someone she always dreamed for came to save her.

She could still remember the horror and heartache in his eyes, and she feared that he would forever see her as this.

The vulnerable and helpless little victim.

But when she hugged him for the first time, all of those horrible little insecurities and nagging words seemed to fade into obscurity.

Mentally, she cried out for that very same relief to take her right now.

-

Malachi was in the middle of administering a necessary shot to one of the female refugees when he suddenly felt a sensation like his heart was being torn into two.

He immediately dropped the syringe on the floor and leapt into the shadows at his feet; inadvertently leaving behind Celeste and Aubrey without so much as an explanation.

In the outpost, he crawled out of the shadows on the floor like a demon from hell, and his eyes immediately sifted through the sea of bodies to find Joanne.

When he found her, he closed the distance between them almost instantaneously and pulled her into his arms.

"Jo!"

Joanne heard a familiar scream before she finally came to, and she realized a few moments later that she was nestled within one of her man's famous bearhugs.

Along with the delightful feeling of being crushed softly came the sensation of having all of her dread and terror sucked out of her.

Now, everything just felt... warm.

So much so that it was no surprise that she started to fall asleep.

Her last thought was that she was sure that she had embarrassed herself quite a bit and was hoping that she didn't wake up to deal with the consequences later.

Once she was sleeping and the room was quiet, Malachi kissed her softly on the forehead before Anna did the same, and wiped away the running tears from her mother's eyes.

"What... happened..?"

Malachi's question was poised at the room more so than an individual.

However, nobody answered initially.

Perhaps it was the frightful tone that made everyone here take a step back and clutch their pearls out of surprise.

Anna was the only one here who could muster up the energy to point at the holotable, where the projected warships were still on their way with an army of abominations in tow.

Malachi didn't need to see anything else.

He lifted Joanne into his arms and passed her to Anna as if she were a gentle flower.

"Can you get her into bed and make sure she's alright..? Stay with her just incase she wakes up."

"Babe, I want to-"

"I know you do, but please. There is nothing more important than this." he said softly.

Anna had never heard Malachi talk to her like this before.

It was soft, yet firm, and left absolutely no room at all for refusal.

"Mm… I'll take care of her."

Malachi passed Joanne to Anna just as he heard the first explosions go off.

Realizing he was out of time, he finally stood up.

The snakes coming out of his back became a much darker, obsidian color of the same variety as his skin.

They also grew in size and aggression until they were so damned frightening that even these experienced hunters didn't want to go near them.

His hair came alive and formed hundreds of miniature snakes; each of which was no less aggressive than the large ones.

"Aisha. How's your stamina?"

Normally, his best friend would've said something crass like, 'Ask your mom about me, play boy.'

But because she could tell that he was in a rare non playful mood, she decided to holster that comment until later.

...She was definitely going to use it though.

"I'm insulted you even needed to ask. I'm ready for whatever." she shrugged.

She followed Malachi closely behind as he began to exit the room and watched him pull off his hoodie in front of everyone and drop it into the shadows on the floor.

His torso was only bare for a moment before he pulled out a black jacket made of a resistant, tear proof material.

He pulled the silver zipper all the way up to his neck before crafting up a pair of matching fingerless gloves and pulling them on.

Shadows reached up to remove his regular old sweatpants in favor of some matching tactical ones that weren't nearly as baggy.

A sheath was strapped to his right thigh, and held all nine of the precious silver daggers that he had gotten back from Aisha a few weeks ago.

Black combat boots adored his feet instead of regular sandals like he always wore; laced tightly and already tucked in to his pants.

"Good. Stay on my hip." he ordered.

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When the door finally slid open, he was barking out orders like a trained strategist.

"Nadine, Luna, B, you're with us, we're bringing down those warships. Sei, Serana, Rose, you're on the ground with everyone else.

The abominations are already going to be rowdier the angrier they get, so drop em' fast and move on to the next. This is a marathon, not a sprint. Be smart."

Malachi didn't exactly linger to make sure his orders were being followed or even heard.

He and his group ducked out of the comm room not long afterwards with his sole focus being on vengeance.

Bit by bit, he was remembering the anguished look of Joanne when he found her for the first time.

And though he thought he had already unburdened himself from his hatred, he realized there was a lot more inside of him to lay down.

-

Outside of the outpost, the forest was literally on fire.

The medley of traps placed by the nightfall faction ahead of time had done their job splendidly, and thrown the advanced line of abominations into disarray.

Those that broke through the fray were able to emerge in the clearing by the lake, where Malachi and his group were already stepping into sight.

"MEAT!!"

"THE MEAT IS HERE!"

"WE FEAST NOW!"

Ignoring the row of rowdy abominations coming towards him, Malachi kept his eyes in the sky above, and on the four invisible warships that he could sense, but not see.

But nevertheless, he knew exactly where they were.

A flick of his wrist brought his spear into his hand; but like it was responding to his emotional state,

The normal gold and silver spear became a much darker, black metallic color.

Aisha drew out a large golden lance like the kind used for jousting, and a pair of angelic wings were sprouted from her back.

The white haired young woman looked back and forth between her weapon and her friend's before being absolutely unable to resist.

"...Mine's bigger."

"God, I hate you."

"Yea, yea."

Clutching his spear, Malachi hurled it right at an empty section of the sky.

In the seconds before a large explosion took place in the clearing, a single thought crossed his mind.

'No more warnings. None of you will leave here alive…!'